Trentonian editorial: The Horndog Rule

The rule that covers high-level horndogs has become harder to follow than wild-card playoff berths. But that wasn’t always the case. The High-Level Horndog Rule seemed straightforward enough when first officially promulgated.

The rule stated that to have access to classified materials one must have demonstrated (here we quote verbatim): “strength of character, truthfulness, honesty, reliability, discretion and sound judgment” — wait, not done yet — “as well as freedom from conflicting allegiances and potential for coercion.”

Until you get to that last, blackmail part — "freedom from...potential for coercion” — it sounds like something from the Boy Scout Laws. Actually, it’s from Executive Order No. 12969, issued by — ready for this? — President Bill Clinton. He inked the order in August, 1995, shortly before his own femme-fatale entanglement with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The High-Level Horndog Rule seemed clear at the time: Clinton was compelled to resign under the terms of his own edict. Nobody has higher access to national secrets than the president. Not even the CIA director.

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By virtue of his position, a president has access to whatever he wants to know — to everything.

But Clinton refused to step down and fought off an impeachment effort aimed at forcing him to do so. The confusing conclusion of “Monicagate” was that the High-Level Horndog Rule didn’t apply to the nation’s highest-level horndog.

Although the top horndog had experienced previous scrapes for allegedly hitting on — or pawing — the lower-level female help in the White House and, before that, in the Arkansas governor’s mansion, liberalism’s feminist scolds dropped their nagging about sexual harrassment elsewhere in the workplace and rallied en masse to President Clinton’s defense.

Now — adding to the confusion — there seems to be wide agreement that the High-Level Horndog Rule, although it did not apply to the highest horndog, does apply to a lower-level horndog, Gen. David Petraeus, director of the CIA — a post that’s up there but still below the presidency on the flowchart.

Cynical wags say that maybe the horndog rule has an unwritten exemption for draft dodgers but none for paratrooper rangers. Setting aside such snide suggestions, the nation awaits further elucidation on the matter.

The feminist scolds, for example, haven’t yet weighed in. Apparently they need a little more time to formulate a position regarding the application of the horndog rule to the current contretemps.